my reef GARden frenzY: frag

We have come to the end of 2014 and this marks the 2nd year anniversary of me going back to reefing.

This year 2014 alone, I am quite happy with the progress made in the second half of the year after I upgraded my bigger tank to a 3 feet one. When I compared the recent photos with some past ones, I realized there were some things and corals from the past that I still love and are missing from the current aquarium. However, there isn't much space left for me to add that many more things.

So a big question that I have is what should I do in 2015? Should I finally succumb to getting a chiller and a calcium reactor? I am really not too sure at the moment although I was tempted to get the latter when I almost had the chance to go to China early this month. Or should I work on upgrading my 3 feet further to a 6 feet although space at home is a constraint and consideration or should I do a project to get a rimless tank much like the Fluval Edge Aquarium. I was sketching a customized tank but didn't manage to get it done thus far. A cliff-hanging L-shaped tank would definitely be too much. There are just too many items on my wish list for the new year but money and space are serious issues that I have to grapple with.

Fluval Edge Aquarium taken from the web

Separately, I recently read with great interest the importance of using tonga rock pieces to form the base foundation, instead of using big, fat and round pieces, to improve water circulation around the bases. It all made sense and for years, I have been using such big, fat and round rocks to pile them together into a mountain, and unknowingly created dead zones around the rocks that collected debris.

So I finally removed the last few pieces of basal rocks from aquarium 1 over the last weekend and replaced them with two pieces of rocks that I purchased from Sea Life Aquarium. It may need a few more pieces but I am pleased with it for now. For aquarium 3, I just managed to remove a number of basal rocks that were buried in the sand today and did a rescape as shown below. I spent at least 3 hours doing it just now and am currently quite pleased with the results too.

This much I managed to achieve before the clock strikes twelve tonight! So here's wishing all an early happy and prosperous 2015!

Aquarium 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
The list of livestock is as follows:

Fishes

Yellow Shrimp Goby
2 true Percula ocellaris Clowns
Hector Goby
Regal Blue Tang
2 Green Clown Gobies

Invertebrates

3 Turbo Snails
Nassarius Snail
Tuxedo Sea Urchin
Fire Shrimp

Corals

2 Acans
mega Blasto
Bubble Coral
Duncan

Soft Corals

Rose Bud Tip Anemone and Bud Tip Anemone
White Tree Coral
Orange Tree Coral

Polyps

Anthelia
Zoas
2 rocks of Green Star Polyps
Glove Polyps

Mushrooms

a few blue Actinodiscus mushrooms

Macroalgae

green Caulerpa
green cup algae
red algae

The technical information is as follows:

Atman HF-0600 HOB Filter

Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000K)

Tunze Osmolator Nano

Boyu Cooling Fan

my first Aquarium 1 before I rescaped it on 27 Dec 14

aquarium under 100% blue lights

white tree coral

orange tree coral

the 1 inch Blue Tang and two True Percula Clowns

Yellow Shrimp Goby

Hector's Goby

the new 5 headed Duncan

Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
I have almost used up all the real estate space of this aquarium. There isn't much room for me to add anything although occasionally some of the corals still show some stn. I am losing a beautiful purple-tipped green hammer coral because I recently turned up the speed of the wavemaker and caused days of sandstorm that covered the branches with layers after layers of sand, smothering the coral in the process and prevented it from opening fully.

I also set up a frag rack to start propagating some overgrown corals.

The updated list of livestock is:

Fishes

false Percula Clown Fish
2 black Clowns
Purple Tang
Blue-yellow Damsel
Six Line Wrasse
Yellow Tang
Yellow Clown Goby
Flame Angel

Invertebrates

Turbo and Nassarius snails
red Linckia starfish
purple Linckia starfish
2 Tuxedo Urchins
2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
Fire Shrimp
Yellow Fan Worm
orange Sea Squirt
Fromia starfish
brown polyps Gorgonian
Toadstool Leather Coral (bleached)

Corals

Horn Coral
2 frags of green digitata
frag of pink Pocci
frag of Birdnest
frag of pink Birdnest
frag of purple digitata
2 frags of Fibre Optic Pocci
frag of green Stylophora
peach Monti cap
green Monti cap
frag of red digitata
frag of sunset Monti
frag of reverse sunset Monti
orange Cyphastrea
2 green frags
purple stag
blue sps
purple Birdnest
Red Planet
green Pocci
maroon Pocci
green purple Pocci
green encrusting Monti
yellow Birdnest
red Millepora
red encrusting Monti
unknown digitata

6 Acans
Hammer Coral
3 Supersun Coral frags
yellow Bubble Coral
Octo Coral
brown Alveopora
green and blue Goniopora
red Goniopora
purple Alveopora with blue eye
peach Hammer Coral

Mushrooms

orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
rock of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
red Actinodiscus mushrooms
green Ricordea yuma mushrooms
red mushrooms

Soft Corals

2 Chilli Corals
red Flower Rock Anemone
2 pink Rose Bud Tip Anemones
green tipped anemone
grey pulsing Xenia

Polyps

purple Zoas
Fiery Red Zoas
green Palythoa
4 green Star Polyps
4 assorted Zoas
Clove Polyps

Macroalgae (in sump)

Caulerpa
Chaetomorpha
red Bamboo

The technical details are:

Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
Maxspect R420R 16,000K 160W
Reef Octopus BH1000 skimmer
2 Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosban
Cooling Fan
Fluval 3 external filter
MP25 and RW-8 wavemakers
Tunze Nano Osmolator
Marine Magic Triplet Dosing

today's FTS after rescaping

the left

the right

the left taken at an angle

the right taken at an angle

the Yellow Clown Goby

the purple Birdnest and a Pocci

this has to be the most expensive coral that I have and I hope it's worth it

the bigger black Clown bit me earlier and I had a rude shock

Aquarium 4 (39 x 32 x 41 cm with 7 cm IOS - 55 litres)

This is one of the office aquarium which has successfully been culturing the brown Anthelia, which has crept up the front glass panel. It is an interesting aquarium that went through much changes too and recently, I just threw out all the big, fat and round rocks. Yes, I am intending to find some open pieces to rescape it to my satisfaction but meanwhile, I am allowing new strains of green macroalgae and the brown Anthelia to grow. By the way, it has only 3 fishes because earlier attempts to introduce other fishes such as the Banner Fish failed.

The updated list of livestock is:

Fishes

Yellow Tang
Gold Maroon Clown Fish
Blue-yellow Damsel Fish

Invertebrates

Turbo snails

Corals

Polyps

Anthelia
Zoas

Macroalgae

green algae
Chaetomorpha

The technical details are:

Green Element LED 60W (12 White 12,000K and 8 Blue 460 nm) with 2 fans

these photos were taken on 29 Dec 14

there are only 3 fishes inhabitants

the Finger Coral is doing well

the Yellow Tang is getting fat

a gold Maroon Clown

somehow the growth of the Anthelia seemed to have slowed down

there are 2 patches that are growing up the front glass panel

I must say this month of September has been a fruitful one. Acquisition of corals, particularly LPS and SPS, were initially slow but picked up pace towards the end of the month.

Then something struck me when I read a post in the Singapore Reef Club. A member posted about how he got his bleached corals to recover over a period of about 6 months by putting them in the dark and feeding them regularly. What he said made sense to me. When a coral is bleached, there are hardly any zooxanthellae in its structure, hence exposing it to light would only cause it to expel its remaining zooxanthellae. Without the zooxanthellae, the corals cannot photosynthesize and needs to rely on an external source of nutrition, that is feeding.

Hence, I changed my lighting regime and tuned down the white light and focused more on the blue spectrum. I removed the ATI Sun Module 4 x 39W T5 lights because I suspected that it caused further bleaching of some of my corals recently, including a Birdnest, a digitata SPS etc. Let's see how the corals react to the change although one of my Acans regained back some of its red colour. Without a chiller, my conclusion is I need the fan to bring down the water temperature slightly to reduce the incidence of bleaching.

Aquarium 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)

This aquarium still looks dirty and I haven't quite stocked anything here. I just added a small Yellow Tang to help combat the algae issue. My attention is still very much on Aquarium 3.

The list of livestock is as follows:

Fishes

Flameback Angel
Yellow Shrimp Goby
2 true Percula ocellaris clowns
Hector Goby
Yellow Tang

Invertebrates

3 Turbo Snails
Nassarius Snail

Corals

Acan
mega Blasto
bleached Hammer Coral

Soft Corals

Rose Bud Tip Anemone and Bud Tip Anemone

Polyps

unknown green coral
Green Star Polyps
Glove Polyps

Mushrooms

a few blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
a few green Rhodactis mushrooms

Macroalgae

green Caulerpa
red algae
purple algae

The technical information is as follows:

Dolphin H-200 hang-on-back filter

Shiruba XB-303 External Filter

Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000 K)

Tunze Osmolator Nano

Aqua Cool Fan

a mega Blasto

a recovering Acan

Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
This aquarium saw some exciting times because of the amount of SPS I introduced and the amount of re-positioning of the SPS frags. I threw some bleached SPS e.g. Birdnest, orange digitata sps, into the sump tank to see if they can recover. In conclusion, it is immensely rewarding to see the SPS growing gradually.

The updated list of livestock is: